HOFC Malta Round Up for 2018
So our fifth year together as Hooked on Fishing Malta has been and gone.
It started well off in Janaury kicking off with our much beloved Doubles League. This league is a nice friendly league in which yearly a good number of anglers participate. This years’ league was made up of 11 teams. Senglea, Xatt L-ahmar Gozo, Qawra, Cospicua and Manoel Island where the venues chosen by participants and proved adequately chosen with the lack of places available for match fishing around the island.
This year’s HOFC Doubles was sponsored by Tubertini Malta providing most of the winning vouchers together with rods, reels and other fishing equipment for raffles. It was a nice battled league as always in our club we emphasize on friendship and learning together as one group. Marlon Tanti and Wayne Bugeja both individually fully sponsored by Tubertini set off with a nice pace and ended up winners just above Dorian Formosa and Noel Baldacchino. In third place this year it was nice to see Lawrence Pulis and Sheldon Bouvett also sponsored by Tubertini and Ellevi providing a good challenge in all matches and finishing in third place.
Just after the Doubles league ended it was then the turn of the much awaited singles league. This year’s singles was sponsored by Proserv and Ellevi. Adrian Nelson for the second year in a row won the overall first place despite a slow start in the first matches. Yet again it was a nice overall podium for Marlon Tanti who provided a superb challenge for Nelson till the last match in Manoel Island. Michael Godfrey also had a nice run up catching a nice sea bass from Birgu and ending up in third place overall and noticeably netting a total of over 10kgs of fish from five matches and winning the biggest fish of the league.
In the meantime the National Federation league also started and this year it was decided by the federation organising the national league that anglers must exclusively fish with the club in which they are members. Other clubs started their planning very much in advance and fielded very much experienced anglers in their teams, but yet again our club coach taking care of federation matters Peter Paul Azzopardi, managed a nice setup of two teams which ended up in national champions again in a second consecutive run. Team A consisting of Marlon Tanti, Matthew Dimech, Adrian Nelson and Carmelo Quatrocchi yet again managed a win in all matches and thus finishing top spot with just 39 penalty points, with the nearest rival being DFCM Team A with 51 penalty points. This was again a big win for the club as no other club has ever managed to win the federation league in such style.
After the National Federation our club was in full preparations for the first ever float fishing league being organised in North Africa. So far no other Maltese club has ever travelled out of Europe and ventured in such tournaments. It was the nicest of events being organised by Match Fishing Tunisia in which not less than 80 anglers fished for the very first time the port of La Goulette in Tunisia. In less than a month our club members were in full swing on rigging on their floats and matching their bolo rods to prepare for this big level tournament. Yet again our club has done brilliantly with Adrian Nelson placing in 4th place overall, Noel Baldacchino in 7th and Peter Paul Azzopardi also snatching a second overall in his section.
Soon after it was the very first float fishing tournament being organised from the club. This year’s mullet league was voted from club members to change slightly in a new format as anglers will be fishing exclusively the float fishing method and only farka and dough can be used as baits. It was a nice ending and a very successful year for Marlon Tanti being crowned champion of this prestigious tournament. He managed a good finale in the last two matches beating nearest rival our mullet man Micheal Godfrey, while in third place Peter Paul Azzopardi from Ellevi.
Apart from the main leagues being organised our club was also busy in between organising a friendly trout fishing tournament abroad for club members and families in Sicily. For the very first time locally a junior school was organised in the summer months and training sessions were occasionally being organised to keep our anglers in good shape for fishing matches whilst providing the perfect atmosphere for sharing ideas of affronting different angling matches.
For all the past year’s results you can click the following link: https://www.hofcmalta.com/copy-of-competions-events
Whilst wishing all our club members and their families, the federation and all other clubs in Malta the best for the coming year, we also take the opportunity to encourage more youngsters and other fishing enthusiasts in joining in this nice competitive sports.
Whoever may want to start participating in sports fishing kindly contact our club on hofcmalta@gmail.com